Bjorn Wirdheim is a fresh addition to the Formula One paddock. Intelligent, humble and hard working, the F3000 Champion made his debut in Melbourne as Jaguar's third driver - a stop on his way to a fulltime F1 racing career. In an exclusive column for Atlas F1, Bjorn will share his experience over the 2004 season and tell us in his own words about the technical and personal challenges he faces throughout the year.

This Week: Bjorn talks about the challenges of the Shanghai track, and how the Ford announcement affects his own plan and the Jaguar team's spirits

The news that Ford was going to sell Jaguar Racing and Cosworth came as much of a surprise to me as it did to everyone else - I heard a rumour on Thursday evening, and then on Friday it was announced in the work shop, and my engineer rang me at eleven o'clock as I was on my way to the gym to tell me that they just announced to all the personnel at the factory that they were going to sell the team, that everyone was going to be employed until the end of the year, and if the sale doesn't go through by that time that they will be retrenched.

I just turned around and went straight back home to ring my manager, and five minutes later David Pitchforth rang me just as I walked into the flat to explain the situation to me, and that was it. I actually went to the work shop later in the afternoon; I was supposed to go anyway to have a look at what we were going to do in Shanghai, and everybody was pretty down. They are still optimistic, though, because it's not as if the team is completely folding, and in fact the management is trying to keep the team alive.

Obviously I was quite disappointed, because I think my best chance to remain in Formula One next year was with Jaguar - I have an option agreement that would have to be renewed by the end of this month, and I was pretty sure that they were going to keep me for another year – I don't know exactly what my chances were to get a race drive, but I was pretty sure that I would be able to at least stay with the team for one more year. That's probably not going to happen now, because even if the team continues to work together next year there's going to be a different owner, and for sure they are going to want to choose new drivers.

But everything happened just a short while ago, and if the team is going to be bought it's going to have to happen really soon, because they have to send their entry form to the FIA by the 15th of November, so I can afford to wait a little bit and just see what happens. Of course we're in touch with other teams to see if there are any possibilities there, and I'm still in touch with the people I tested with in the USA last year. In fact, they've been working hard to get me over there, and they've actually made a very good offer for me to race in ChampCar next year.

I'd like to do it, but before I decide I have to see what happens in Formula One – obviously my aim is to get a race drive in Formula One next year, but there are so many things hanging in the air right now, with Minardi and Jordan not certain and the dispute over Jenson Button to be resolved, so a lot of things will probably happen in Formula One within the next month.

The offer from CART is really positive, and I would certainly like to do it, but if I go over to the USA it would mean I've wasted a year in Formula One, so I want to continue for one more year at least to make use of everything I've gained this year. Therefore, before I commit to anything else I want to really explore every opportunity in Formula One, just to make it a more worthwhile year here.

But more positively I was really looking forward to getting over to Shanghai for the first ever Formula One race in China. I arrived on Wednesday morning and had a few hours of sleep before heading out to the track - the only possibility we had to drive around the track was on Wednesday evening, and I managed to drive a few laps just to get a good idea of the layout of the circuit. I could see that it was a pretty difficult circuit, especially with that first corner, and I think turns 11, 12 and 13 are quite tricky to get right as well.

Later that night I went downtown to see the market everybody talks about, but I got there around 9:30pm and it was shut. When I got there, I met a German journalist who told me it shuts at 8:30pm, so I shared a taxi back to the hotel with him but we got completely lost and weren't able to communicate with the taxi driver - I got out and walked a couple of blocks and eventually found the hotel, but that was about all I saw of Shanghai!

I had dinner with my race engineer, Ron Hartvelt, and we had exactly the same meal but somehow he got food poisoning and I didn't. It was pretty bad for him, although it was a bit funny for everyone else – he was really sick all of the next day, and had to keep excusing himself from meetings to go off and be sick!

Luckily he was okay again in time for the practice sessions on Friday, because we had a quite unusual programme as we were working with different weight distributions of the ballast, moving it forward and rearward to log the effects on the car. With the tyre programme on top of that, it was quite a busy programme, especially since we had to change the floor and engine between the sessions.

I went out as usual in the morning to get up to speed as quickly as possible, and it is quite a tricky circuit – I think the first corner is probably the most difficult in Formula One, because it's a very long corner which tightens up towards the end while the entry is very fast, and because you have to turn quite a lot and brake at the same time. The rear gets a little bit lose on the entry, you have to accelerate halfway through the corner and then brake quite hard because the corner tightens up, while at the same time that it tightens up, the circuit drops away, meaning you can't see the apex or the kerbs because the right front wheel is in the way, and you can't see over it because the seat is so low in the car, so you have to find other marks so you know where to turn.

Because it's a new circuit, it was a little slippery, but the grip improved quite a lot from Friday to Saturday because the tarmac is high grip tarmac - the grip levels were really not too bad when we got started, and then it just kept improving. Unfortunately in the pits they've put concrete down where they refuel the cars and change the tyres, which is really dangerous because it has almost no grip – we tried to clean it and put as much rubber down as we could in the pitbox, but it is quite dangerous.

In fact, Giancarlo Fisichella almost spun into the garage when he came in on Friday morning, and you have to be so careful as you drive out of the garage because if you put too much power on, you'll also spin. It was a big mistake by Mr. Tilke to put that kind of surface down in the pits – it was pointed out in the drivers' briefing, and a lot of the drivers wanted something to be done about it, but unfortunately it will have to wait until next year's race.

But other than that I really enjoyed the circuit – it's very challenging, especially, as I said, the first corner, and the really quick corner at turn seven. I think overall they've managed quite well with the layout, and it was fun. It reminded me quite a lot of Sepang, actually, and the only thing I don't like about it is the paddock: it's far too big! It takes five minutes to walk from the lower end to the top end, so you don't see people too often!

And being in Shanghai was actually quite relaxing – I only had two PR events outside of the track, so that wasn't too bad. The biggest problem was actually transporting the drivers between the venues - the traffic was just horrendous, and it took us two hours to get back from the hotel on Friday, so they had to cancel one of the events. I know that some of the Williams guys had an accident, and it's not that surprising – we were instructed to take taxis or go anywhere with the cars we had, which were driven by locals, because it's too dangerous for us to just drive in the traffic there – there are just no traffic regulations at all. You know, it must be pretty bad when Formula One drivers aren't allowed to drive somewhere!

In the race I was really impressed with Mark, who managed to keep Jacques Villeneuve behind him for pretty much the whole race – it's just a shame that we couldn't get any points at a circuit that no one else knew, but when we get to Japan after the fitness training the team has planned for us in Australia, I'm sure we'll make an extra effort to push the cars home in the points to show everyone just what this team can do.

På återhörande,             Bjorn Wirdheim's column is written exclusively for Atlas F1 by Bjorn himself, with the assistance of David Cameron. Click here for Bjorn's official website.